Page 25 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 3 - Summer 2020
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feasible, with one person staffing the nursery phone and another at the seed extractory, stratifying customer seeds and performing other needed tasks.
A great deal of field work commenced, including tractor operations that got the fields turned and bottoms plowed. Refor- estation staff stepped up to the plate in a big way when planned assistance from inmate details was cancelled. Employees took on the task of laying a large amount of pipe, keeping social distancing pro- tocols in place. Days of irrigation repair were performed, along with laying above- ground irrigation, installing sprinkler heads, applying pre-plant fertilizer and sowing seed for the hardwood and long- leaf, loblolly and slash pine crops.
All planting activities were time sensi- tive and had to be completed by early May. Currently, the seedlings that are up look very healthy and it appears this will be a good growing season. Tree improvement work is in progress, including installing and measuring genetic trials.
State Lands
Timber sales activity continues as several
sister agencies, including the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources and
the University of Georgia, seek to harvest
some of their lands. The GFC has also
been busy assisting the U.S. Forest
Service in sales preparations for addi-
tional harvests under the Good Neighbor
Agreement (GNA) on the Oconee and
Chattahoochee National Forests. Under
the GNA, the GFC performs critical man- agement work on federal lands to keep the
nation’s forests healthy and productive. Technology is helping us continue
our work by utilizing drones to evalu- ate timber stands. We’re using them
for several ongoing projects, including looking for beetle activity, monitoring
harvests, evaluating timber damage due to recent storms, and assessing the completion percentage of an ongoing harvest. This technology allows us to be more efficient and accurate in our timberland work and we plan to use it in the future to monitor conservation ease- ments and help private landowners get a bird’s-eyeviewoftheirproperty.
STASIA KELLY IS A MEDIA RELATIONS SPECIALIST WITH GEORGIA FORESTRY COMMISSION. STASIA IS FOCUSED ON TELLING THE STORY OF FORESTRY AND THE IMMENSE IMPACT OF THE INDUS- TRY ON GEORGIA’S ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMY AND HERITAGE.
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